Man sentenced for assaulting pregnant Blaine girlfriend

A Minneapolis man was sent to prison Nov. 19 in Anoka County District Court for assaulting his Blaine girlfriend who was pregnant at the time.

Roderick Varrell Howse, 26, was given a 21-month prison term for a felony domestic assault conviction, but given credit for 200 days already served for this charge. A separate terroristic threats felony charge was dismissed at sentencing.

Blaine Police were twice called to a home on 115th Avenue, first the evening of April 30 and then the morning of May 1 on domestic assault incidents, according to the criminal complaint.

Officers saw that Howse’s girlfriend had an injury to her lip April 30 and she said her boyfriend, later identified as Howse, had smashed her window and fled and that she was scared of him. Howse could not be located by authorities that evening.

The next morning, she called police again and said her boyfriend had returned and was angry that she had called the police, and pushed her down and threatened to beat her up. She told police that she is pregnant with his child.

Howse was located and arrested that morning.

According to the complaint, Howse has two prior convictions in Hennepin County, one for misdemeanor assault in 2007 and another in 2009 for a gross misdemeanor of violating a contact order. He was also convicted in 2010 in Anoka County and in 2011 in Ramsey County for two more violating no contact orders with the first being a gross misdemeanor and 2011 being a felony conviction.